These days, I start off these information sessions with a simple fact — the minimal cost to raise a child from birth to 18 years old in lower middle class conditions that assume just the minimal caloric intake, a roof over their heads, clothing, medical care, schooling, etc. is roughly PHP1 million. ONE MILLION PESOS or roughly PHP60,000 per year in today’s peso value. If you want a more realistic figure, think PHP2-3 million given inflation et al. I know, I know, the hair on the back of some of your necks is rising with indignation, Marketman boiling down the joy of bringing human life onto this planet into pesos and centavos. But it is an irrefutable fact that if you are responsible for making them, you are indeed fully responsible for ensuring that they are fed, housed, clothed, educated, etc. Boiling it down to a peso figure always seems to wake up youngsters listening, as a careless romp now seems like a million peso gamble. To make a long story short, I explain the different types of birth control. The responsibility that comes with parenthood. The myths that seem to overwhelm medical facts. And basically seek to simply educate, with the ultimate responsibility left with each individual how they wish to conduct their own personal affairs. See what the topic of sausage casings can lead to?
via Market Manila – Sausage Casings (a.k.a. Pig’s Intestines) – General.
LSS::ASK
A song dedicated to me and my friends.
Ask
The Smiths
Shyness is nice and
Shyness can stop you
From doing all the things in life
You’d like to
Shyness is nice and
Shyness can stop you
From doing all the things in life
You’d like to
So, if there’s something you’d like to try
If there’s something you’d like to try
Ask me I wont say no, how could I?
Coyness is nice, and
Coyness can stop you
From saying all the things in
Life you’d like to
So, if there’s something you’d like to try
If there’s something you’d like to try
Ask me I wont say no, how could I?
Spending warm Summer days indoors
Writing frightening verse
To a buxom girl in Luxembourg
Ask me, ask me, ask me
Ask me, ask me, ask me
Because if it’s not Love
Then it’s the bomb, the bomb, the bomb,
the bomb, the bomb, the bomb, the bomb
That will bring us together
Nature is a language – can’t you read ?
Nature is a language – can’t you read ?
So, ask me, ask me, ask me,
Ask me, ask me, ask me
Because if it’s not Love
Then it’s the bomb, the bomb, the bomb,
the bomb, the bomb, the bomb, the bomb
That will bring us together
If it’s not Love
Then it’s the bomb
Then it’s the bomb
That will bring us together
So, ask me, ask me, ask me,
Ask me, ask me, ask me
Oh, la…
rePost :On MTRCB Showtime Osang and Teachers: Marginal Revolution: Heroes are not Replicable
I’ve written about this before but seeing that the MTRCB is still in the process of engaging in a pissing match with ABS-CBN I’m posting about how being a repeater (the “insult” hurled by Rosanna Roces on the teachers) is actually taken in light of evidence with DI (Direct Instruction) is a convoluted form of praise. To be a repeater is a form of acceptance for most teachers. I am unremarkable. I am a cog. I am a replaceable cog. To accept this is in some ways accepting that student’s learning is more important than the sense of validation that people crave from other people. Truly heroic.
In Super Crunchers, Ian Ayres argues that just such a method exists. Overall, Super Crunchers is a light but entertaining account of how large amounts of data and cheap computing power are improving forecasting and decision making in social science, government and business. I enjoyed the book. Chapter 7, however, was a real highlight.
Ayres argues that large experimental studies have shown that the teaching method which works best is Direct Instruction (here and here are two non-academic discussions which summarizes much of the same academic evidence discussed in Ayres). In Direct Instruction the teacher follows a script, a carefully designed and evaluated script. As Ayres notes this is key:DI is scalable. Its success isn’t contingent on the personality of some uber-teacher….You don’t need to be a genius to be an effective DI teacher. DI can be implemented in dozens upon dozens of classrooms with just ordinary teachers. You just need to be able to follow the script.
Contrary to what you might think, the data also show that DI does not impede creativity or self-esteem. The education establishment, however, hates DI because it is a threat to the power and prestige of teaching, they prefer the model of teacher as hero. As Ayres says “The education establishment is wedded to its pet theories regardless of what the evidence says.” As a result they have fought it tooth and nail so that “Direct Instruction, the oldest and most validated program, has captured only a little more than 1 percent of the grade-school market.”
Posted by Alex Tabarrok on September 27, 2007 at 08:20 AM
via Marginal Revolution: Heroes are not Replicable.
Praise :: Obama bans Islam, jihad from US security strategy – World – GMANews.TV – Official Website of GMA News and Public Affairs – Latest Philippine News
Finally a little sanity. If he could just stop snooping on the phone calls and other extreme actions the govt has been doing then he might just get what he lost when he just slapped the bankers in the wrist instead of throwing them in jail.
WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama’s advisers will remove religious terms such as “Islamic extremism” from the central document outlining the US national security strategy and will use the rewritten document to emphasize that the United States does not view Muslim nations through the lens of terror, counterterrorism officials said.
The change is a significant shift in the National Security Strategy, a document that previously outlined the Bush Doctrine of preventative war and currently states: “The struggle against militant Islamic radicalism is the great ideological conflict of the early years of the 21st century.”
The officials described the changes on condition of anonymity because the document still was being written, and the White House would not discuss it. But rewriting the strategy document will be the latest example of Obama putting his stamp on US foreign policy, like his promises to dismantle nuclear weapons and limit the situations in which they can be used.
via Obama bans Islam, jihad from US security strategy – World – GMANews.TV – Official Website of GMA News and Public Affairs – Latest Philippine News.
Praise :: Noynoy opposes Teves’s plan to raise 12% E-VAT to 15%
There was the book taxing travesty last year and now we have secretary teves trying his best to increase government revenues by increasing E-Vat. Simply put, I am against any increases in the E-VAT. VAT’s are regressive taxes in nature. Regressive in our cases means falls more heavily on the people who can least afford it. Processed foods such as some canned goods etc, or worst the chicheria (junk food) that extremely poor people use to give a little taste to a bowl of rice. All this while politicians maintain multiple houses and businesses , very large businesses evade taxes. This is unacceptable. Tax the poor and the near poor and the middle class (I and most classmates are probably part of the near poor and middle class)while you let the big businesses and even small businesses go to the bank with the paper because their accountants know how to run make money out of accounting software. Increase tax efficiency. Catch the big tax evaders. Close the fucking loop holes that unsavory but slick accountants use to hide profits, revenues etc. In short I salute the creative ways Sec Teves is trying so as to close the budget gap but what he is doing is declaring defeat against the big evaders while lording it over the people like most salaried employees and consumers who have no way of evading the the tax.
PS:: I usually go with the crowd in decrying taxes, but honestly I believe in a fair and equitable society where we help each other out. The fortunate sharing some of their fortune to make the lives of the unfortunate just a little more livable. I am not against taxation. I just hate the thought that people who can least afford the tax are the same people who are the easiest targets for taxation.
Noynoy opposes Teves’s plan to raise 12% E-VAT to 15% PDF Print E-mail
Written by Butch Fernandez / Reporter
Tuesday, 06 April 2010 20:21
FINANCE Secretary Margarito Teves’s plan to jack up the 12-percent expanded value-added tax (E-VAT) to 15 percent met immediate objections from opposition stalwarts, led by Liberal Party standard-bearer Sen. Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III.
“This [planned E-VAT increase] is the easy way out,” Aquino said, adding: “We can collect more taxes at the Bureau of Internal Revenue and higher duties at Bureau of Customs if we become more serious in curbing and punishing tax evasion and smuggling.”
In a statement, Aquino assured that if elected, his administration would instead focus on raising revenues by increasing the government’s tax collection efficiency to 17 percent.
via Noynoy opposes Teves’s plan to raise 12% E-VAT to 15%.
rePost :: Judge Invalidates Human Gene Patent – NYTimes.com
If you are in anyway interested in gene patents (we should all be) read the whole thing!
A federal judge on Monday struck down patents on two genes linked to breast and ovarian cancer. The decision, if upheld, could throw into doubt the patents covering thousands of human genes and reshape the law of intellectual property
via Judge Invalidates Human Gene Patent – NYTimes.com.
rePost :: The Big Picture » Blog Archive » Top 10 Hedge Fund Managers 2009 Salary
I’m in the wrong business!
The top 25 earners were paid a collective $25.3 billion. The lowest earner on the list earned a puny $350 million — a shanda! — making it embarrassing to even show his face at the country club. (What a loser).
Here’s your top 10 list:Top Earning Fund Mangers
1.David Tepper, Appaloosa Management
Est. 2009 personal earnings: $4 billion
2. George Soros, Soros Fund Management
Est. 2009 personal earnings: $3.3 billion
3. James Simons, Renaissance Technologies
Est. 2009 personal earnings: $2.5 billion
4: John Paulson, Paulson & Company
Est. 2009 personal earnings: $2.3 billion
5: Steve Cohen, SAC Capital Advisors
Est. 2009 personal earnings: $1.4 billion
6. (tie): Carl Icahn, Icahn Capital
Est. 2009 personal earnings: $1.3 billion
6. (tie): Edward Lampert, ESL Investments
Est. 2009 personal earnings: $1.3 billion
8. (tie): Kenneth Griffin, Citadel Investment Group
Est. 2009 personal earnings: $900 million
8. (tie): John Arnold, Centaurus Advisors
Est. 2009 personal earnings: $900 million
10. Philip Falcone, Harbinger Capital Partners
Est. 2009 personal earnings: $825 millionAll data, NYT, Absolute Return + Alpha.com
via The Big Picture » Blog Archive » Top 10 Hedge Fund Managers 2009 Salary.
Ponder :: Sonia Sotomayor Has Pursued Her Calling :: Ben Casnocha: The Blog:
ditto. Read the whole thing!
These profiles give an authentic glimpse of a style of life that hasn’t yet been captured by a novel or a movie — the subtle blend of high-achiever successes, trade-offs and deep commitments to others. In the profiles, you see the intoxicating lure of work, which provides an organizing purpose and identity. You see the web of mentor-mentee relationships — the courtship between the young and the middle-aged, and then the tensions as the mentees break off on their own…. You see the way people not only choose a profession, it chooses them. It changes them in a way they probably didn’t anticipate at first.
… Sotomayor’s life also overlaps with a broader class of high achievers. You don’t succeed at that level without developing a single-minded focus, and struggling against its consequences.
via Ben Casnocha: The Blog: Sonia Sotomayor Has Pursued Her Calling.
Things To Ponder :: Do You Want a Family or a Calling? :: Ben Casnocha: The Blog
Damn, think I’ve made this choice already, sadly subconsciously.
I believe the unvarnished reality about work-life-balance is this: the only people who successfully follow an all-consuming, high-impact professional calling are: a) either single or married to a someone who has a “career” (or less) and not a “calling” and, b) do not have kids.
The most effective men and women of this variety tend to be married to a comparatively passive partner (this does not mean objectively passive) because marriage boosts happiness, and do not have kids.
Yes, there are plenty of exceptions, but that's what they are: exceptions. Yes, Lewis's distinction is too rigid, but it's to make a point.
Many men, including some of Silicon Valley's most famous, do their “calling” early in life and then “career” later in life with kids. Men have the luck of being able to organize their lives in a way that this can work. Women, not so much. Damn biological clock.
via Ben Casnocha: The Blog: Do You Want a Family or a Calling?.